Tristán White wrote:
I've noticed, in the past few weeks, a decrease in courtesy when trains
actually wait for passengers to leave the arriving train across the
platform.

Sorry, that made no sense did it? I'm talking about things like Finchley
Road (Metropolitan to Jubilee) and Mile End (District to Central) and vice
versa.

In the past, if a train already on one platform gets there first, and the
train on the other platform is just pulling in, they used to wait for the
passengers on the second train to get out and run across the platform to
the waiting one.

Over the past month or two I've noticed that trains are closing their doors
on one just as the new train is opening its doors to let passengers off.

This has particularly been the case on the District/Central interchange at
Mile End.

Now, I don't mind if there's another train 1 minute behind, but this
morning, and last night, it was about 7 minutes when I went from Central to
District at Mile End, and about 4 minutes when I went from District to
Central this morning.

Have drivers been told no longer to wait? Has there been a general "don't
give a ****" increase among drivers or controllers? What's going on?

I must say though that the courtesy between DLR trains at Poplar (people
going from Canary Wharf to Beckton and changing at Poplar) is still alive
and well and trains indeed wait. But no such courtesy between District and
Central any more.

I've only witnessed this lack of courtesy at Finchley Road once, so perhaps
that was a one-off. And I don't use this interchange much. But I use the
Mile End one every day and it's getting increasingly on my goat.



BEFORE ANYONE LEAPS DOWN MY THROAT AND TALKS ABOUT HAVING TO STICK TO
TIMETABLES ETC - I just wanted to say that IN THE PAST they waited, they
don't now (or they're less likely to do so now). That's all.

Sorry for being so indistinct. Probably didn't make a lot of sense there.
:-))



I wouldn't be surprised, given that bus drivers are definitely
instructed not to stop at compulsory bus stops any more, unless someone
very forcefully requests it, and given that "target dwell times" at
each station are an instruction to shut doors on passengers (I've had
an admission of this in writing).

However, it occurs to me that there used to be signs addressed to the
guard at places like Mile End, asking them to wait. Now that there
aren't any guards, it's less practical for the driver to be keeping an
eye out for trains in a different platform, being only able to look in
mirror at their own train. Another benefit of reducing staff ...